Through The Flames, Into Darkness
by Lautari
Summary: The events of Into Darkness molded to fit my series.
1. Chapter 1

_So, I'm finally diving back into my series, and this is my spin on the events in "Into Darkness". This will be a series of vignettes from the point of view of different characters. This takes place after "Two Cups of Tea and a Bottle of Bourbon."_

000000000000000

"Admiral, there is a young lady here to see you."

Pike pinched the bridge of his nose wearily. "I'm not seeing anyone else today…" His voice trailed off as the door swung open and Carol Marcus blew in with a nervous aide on her heels.

"I'm sorry, sir, she just – "

"It's alright," he assured her waving her off. "Close the door."

The aide backed out and Carol barely let the door shut before crossing her arms and hissing, "You took the Enterprise from him?"

"I had nothing to do with it, I wasn't allowed to be involved," the admiral defended. "Though it's one of the few decisions your father's made that I agree with."

"Jim is the best captain in the Fleet!"

"He is a reckless, thoughtless boy with a lot to learn."

"From what I heard he saved an entire planet."

"Do not use blind luck as an excuse – "

"Don't use Starfleet regulations as an excuse," Carol countered boldly.

Pike stiffened and rose to his feet. "You remember who you're talking to, young lady," he warned.

"I'm trying, she answered honestly, softening. "Sir, I joined Starfleet with the belief that we were more than all that…_bullshit_."

Pike hid a smile.

"And it's a not a belief I got from my father," Carol continued raising an eyebrow pointedly.

Pike sighed and cocked his head. "For someone that has spent the last year running in the other direction, you've come running to his defense rather quickly."

Carol touched her belly. "It's complicated."

Pike raised an eyebrow wryly and knew he wouldn't get anything else out of her. When Carol was done talking about something, she was done talking about something. He came around his desk and perched on the edge. "Jim is a lot of things, Carol. But he's not a captain yet."

"I know what Jim is capable of," she whispered, stepping forward. "I know what he is willing to do for those around him and what he's willing to give up. He is more of a captain than any of those other salty war dogs you know." She smiled sadly, without malice. "He's an _explorer_, Pike. I know you believe in him. I'm not asking you to excuse him, I'm asking you to give him an opportunity to earn his stripes."

Pike smiled at her affectionately. "You've got your Dad's balls and your Mom's heart." He sighed. "I'll see what I can do."

Carol smiled and turned to leave but Pike's voice stopped her. "You know, you're right about him. You should take that to heart. Give him a chance to earn his stripes. He's a _father_, Carol."


	2. Chapter 2

_["They've taken the Enterprise from you."]_

Jim had barely been able to since Pike had brushed past him. His mentor had barely been able to look at him_. _

_["You're not ready for it."]_

Jim let out a haggard breath and pressed the heel of his palm into his forehead. He truly wasn't ready. For anything that had hurtled his way in the past months. He pulled out his PADD and scrolled through the contacts.

_Winona_…his mother was in Iowa and frankly, he was too ashamed to face her.

_Spock_…not in the mood.

_Uhura_….the hooded glances they once exchanged were now bittersweet and her eyes mostly followed him in confusion now.

_McCoy_…their relationship had gone from bitter to cool professionalism. Would they ever be the same? No. Would they ever be okay again? Eventually. Just…not yet.

_Carol_…he immediately snapped the device shut and waved the bartender over for fill up.

The brunette on the stool down the bar smiled and flashed one back. She'd be the perfect way to forget blond curls falling across his chest in the morning. He opened his mouth to speak, but Pike plopped down on the stool next to him. Jim growled in frustration. "How did you find me?"

"I know you better than you think I do," Pike replied motioning for a beer. "The first time I found you it was in a dive like this. Remember that? You'd just gotten your ass handed to you."

Jim frowned. "No I didn't."

"No?"

"That's not what happened."

"There was an epic beating."

"No it wasn't."

"You had napkins hanging out of your nose. Did you not?"

Jim conceded with a laugh. "Yeah," he confessed. "That was a good fight."

Pike smiled a little sadly. "A good fight, huh? I think that's your problem right there." He let his words sink in a moment before continuing. "They gave her back to me. The Enterprise."

Jim tried to keep a poker face. "Congratulations." He reached for his drink. "Watch yourself with that First Officer, though."

Pike shook his head nonchalantly. "Spock's not going to be working with me, he's been transferred. USS Bradbury."

Jim's face betrayed him and hope lit his eyes.

"You're going to be my First Officer."

Jim met his gaze for the first time.

"Marcus took some convincing," Pike said not unkindly. "But every once in a while I can make a good case."

Jim searched for the words. "What did you tell him?"

Pike wanted to tell him about the heavily pregnant blond that barged into his office hours earlier, but only shrugged. Maybe some other time. "The truth," he said with conviction. "That I believe in you. That if anyone deserves a second chance it's Jim Kirk."

Jim could barely contain his emotion and felt his eyes water. He had to look away for a moment before whispering, "I don't know what to say."

"That'd be a first," the older man said, in an attempt to lighten the mood. He smiled comfortingly. "It's going to be okay, son." His PADD beeped and he scanned the message. "Emergency session. That's us." He punched Jim's arm. "Suit up."


	3. Chapter 3

"Carol?"

Carol spun around. "McCoy."

The usually grumpy doctor's face split into a genuine smile and he made his way through the crowd to his old friend and hugged her tightly. "You're a sight for sore eyes," he said bopping her on the nose affectionately. "What are you doing in these parts, sweetheart?"

"I had dinner with friends." Carol smiled warmly but her eyes were guarded and they skimmed the sidewalk warily. McCoy sighed. "He's not with me."

She tried to hide her relief and she took his arm. "Do you have plans?"

He covered her hand on his arm with his hand and shook his head. "In the old days, I'd ask to buy you a drink, but….." He looked down at her belly. "Now I'd ask if you wanted to go for coffee."

She smiled shyly and squeezed his arm. "I'd love to."

000000000000000

They slid into a booth at one of their old haunts from the Academy days and Carol, never one to dance around the elephant in the room, was the first to speak. "I'd ask what you were doing in the bar district, but then I remembered your love of bourbon and who you're friends with."

"Scotty?" McCoy asked innocently, sipping from his mug. He grinned, but it faded quickly. "I wasn't lying when I said he wasn't with me. But I was looking for him."

Carol grabbed a creamer without looking at him and emptied its contents into her coffee. "Don't you guys usually have a homing beacon on each other?"

McCoy sighed at her sauciness, knowing it was a defense mechanism. "We're haven't exactly been each other's biggest fans lately," he replied honestly. And it was true. He and Jim had settle into an uneasy truce, working and speaking together civilly for the sake of the ship. Sometimes, one of them might say something, or crack an accidental grin that was somewhat of a ghost of the friendship they'd had, but it would disappeared quickly.

Carol frowned at him and he took the opportunity to say something he'd been wanting to get off his chest for a while. "I haven't exactly been your biggest fan either, you know." He said it without malice, but Carol had the decency to look ashamed. He had remained steadfastly by Jim's side through everything, even these last months, because that was where his allegiance was. But he had had a deep friendship with Carol as well. "Jim wasn't the only one you left, Carol," he murmured. "And I've been the one watching him lose it all these months." He leaned forward. "_That baby_, is Jim's. He is_ losing_ it, Carol."

A tear tricked out of the corner of her eye before she swiped it away.

"He deserves that baby, Carol. I know you're scared. Jim is a loose cannon, but I can tell you that he wants this more than anything. He needs this." He paused before continuing. "I know you know he lost the Enterprise today."

Carol hesitated and nodded.

McCoy frowned and wanted to say something but before he could open his mouth, sirens began blaring distantly and his PADD vibrated and blinked. "All medical personnel is to report…." His eyes shot up to meet hers fearfully. "There's an attack at HQ."


	4. Chapter 4

Jim didn't return to his loft after the attack. He had refused to leave Pike's body until it had been taken away and waved off medical attention. Spock had hovered over his frozen, crouched form until Jim finally snapped out of his daze and sent him off. "_Uhura is probably frantic,"_ he had said to his former First Officer. _"Go, I'm fine. Let her know you're alright." _His own PADD was lighting up, but he ignored it and stuffed it deep into his pant pocket. He followed Spock to the ground level, but instead of going left, he had wandered aimlessly, dirty and aching, further and further from downtown until he found himself in the neighborhood he had lived with Carol. Their brownstone looked like every other one on the block except for the ivy growing around the railing on the front stoop. The botanist in Carol had loved their tiny flowerbed by the sidewalk and she had planted the ivy in hope of what it was doing now. In the year since he had been gone, it had begun creeping up the brick of the house and around the doorway. _"Grow, you son of a bitch,"_ she had hissed at it when frost in early spring had killed it.

Jim smiled at the memory and slipped his key in the front door. It still worked. He still carried it on his chain with his ID card. Carol had fought against a key pad, insisting that one didn't buy historic homes to destroy the charm. He disarmed the alarm quickly once inside and then stood in the foyer for a long time. He hadn't spent much time there, he was always off planet, and the two had spent most of their time together at the apartment downtown to be close to headquarters. But when he thought of home nowadays, this was it. He and Carol had bought the place and began renovating it after graduation with real intentions. She painted the walls and moved her mother's piano over and over. McCoy helped him put new floor in the kitchen and he lit all the fires in the old fireplaces when he was home. They had never really talked about the future, they just assumed everything would fall into place. It hadn't.

Gathering strength, he trudged upstairs. He wanted to shower and sleep….nowhere near the wreckage of his life downtown. The PADD was vibrating in his pocket and he glanced at it after pulling it out to toss on the night stand.

_**McCoy:**__ Call me._

_**Uhura:**__ Are you okay?_

Three missed calls from Carol Marcus

_**McCoy:**__ Where are you?_

_**Carol:**__ Kirk, answer your damn phone._

_**McCoy:**__ What the fuck Jim, where the fuck are you?_

One missed call from Leonard McCoy

_**Uhura:**_ _Come here, we're worried about you._

Jim shot of a message to Scotty before peeling his shirt off and collapsing on the bed and staring at the ceiling. The sheets were a little musty, but he tried to pretend that he could still catch the scent of Carol's coconut shampoo on the pillow. His PADD lit up once more and he groaned and picked it up.

_**McCoy: **__Just tell me you're okay, Jim. _

Tears burned Jim's eyes and a low sob escaped his throat and he pinched the bridge of his nose and blinked quickly before replying.

_I'm okay._


	5. Chapter 5

Jim swallowed and took a deep breath. Before yesterday, he hadn't seen Alexander Marcus in a long time and he wasn't looking forward to coming face to face with the man under the current circumstances. The Admiral was known for being an asshole, but it didn't deter Jim. Marcus demanded respect from their first meeting by his mere presence and Jim had given it. Carol adored her father, and for that reason alone he would have swallowed anything Marcus threw at him. He had been welcomed though, helped by his elevated status due to the incident with Nero that had taken place only a few weeks before the Admiral. His juvenile record had been, no doubt, cushioned by his associated with Pike. The former captain of the Enterprise had watched the burgeoning romance between his reluctant protégé and goddaughter with hesitance, but not outright disapproval. _ "Carol is a smart young woman who can make her own decisions," Pike told him once when he'd called the cadet to his office. "But she is Marcus' pride and joy."_

The Admiral had told him this plainly the evening Carol had introduced them. They bonded over cigars and cards, the older man offering him a scotch later in the evening. _ "I like you, Kirk," _he'd said._ "I like your attitude. But Carol is my little girl."_

There was no need for clarification, Jim understood. Marcus was a man to be respected, but there was also something in him that Jim knew should be feared. He could never quite put his finger on it. Pike knew too_. "Don't ever cross him, Jim," _he'd said of one of his oldest friends. Pike had been there just yesterday to buffer. He gripped Jim's arm in support going into the meeting as if he could read his mind. Thankfully, Marcus had been direct and professional, it was what he respected, so Jim was going to be as direct as possible now.

"He's not on Earth," he blurted, before he lost his nerve. Spock was hot on his heels, as he burst into Marcus' conference room. "He's on Kronos, sir. I request my command to be reinstated and your permission to go after him."

The admiral regarded him thoughtfully. "Give us a minute," he said to his fellow officers before joining Kirk. "Kronos. So Harrison's gone to the Klingon homeworld. Is he defecting?"

"We don't know sir," Jim admitted, before Spock interjected with logistics and facts. "He's gotta be hiding there," Jim interrupted the Vulcan, trying to get to his point. "He knows if we go into Klingon space it will be all out war. Starfleet can't go after him, I can." He tried to ignore Spock's glare. He knew what he was asking of him. "Please sir."

Marcus paced around the models in his office. Carol had built them for her father one Christmas. They had stayed in one evening when Jim had been home, drinking wine and painting the pieces so Carol could glue and drill them together. "All-out war with the Klingons is inevitable, Mr. Kirk. If you ask me it's already begun. Since we first learned of their existence the Klingon Empire has conquered and occupied two planets that we know of and fired on our ships half a dozen times. They are coming our way." He turned back to the two younger officers. "London was not an archive. It was a top secret branch of Starfleet dedicated to Section 31. We were developing defense technology and training our officers to gather intelligence on the Klingons and any other potential enemy that means to do us harm. Harrison was one of our top agents."

Suddenly, Jim knew where Carol had been all those times work had called her away. "Well now he's a fugitive and I want to take him out."

Marcus smiled wryly. "Pike always said you were one of our best and brightest. You should've heard him defend you. He's the one that talked you into joining Starfleet isn't he?"

Jim could barely speak. "Yes sir."

The other man didn't seem to mind. "Did he ever tell you who talked him into joining?" The guilt on his face was the one that Jim had felt on his own. It was the guilt that Pike had warned him about, the guilt that Carol had never wanted to him to bear. "His death is on me. Yours can't be."

"Sir please, all I –"

"Mr. Spock you said before the area that Harrison is hiding is uninhabited?"

The look on the Vulcan's face said he didn't trust the superior officer. "Affirmative, sir."

Marcus seemed to make a decision. "As part of a defensive strategy, 31 developed a new photon torpedo." He brought up a 3D image. "Long range, untraceable to Klingon sensors. I don't want you hurt, but I want to take him out. You park on the edge of the neutral zone, you lock onto Harrison's position, you fire, kill him, and you haul ass."

Permission to reinstate Mr. Spock as my First Officer."

"Granted."


End file.
